May 8, 2013

Written by

Detroit Free Press Lansing Bureau

LANSING — State officials say it’s uncertain whether they will still present a workplace safety award to Marathon Petroleum, after an April 27 explosion and fire at Marathon’s Detroit refinery caused evacuations.

The Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced Tuesday — a little over a week after the fire — that Marathon would receive its CET Platinum award in a ceremony at the 83-year-old Detroit refinery Wednesday.

But Wednesday morning, state officials issued a news advisory saying the presentation was canceled “while the company investigates a recent incident.”

“MIOSHA and the company have yet to determine if this event will be rescheduled, as the present focus is on the investigation of this latest incident,” spokeswoman Andrea Miller of the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, which houses the safety agency, said in an e-mail to the Free Press.

State Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, said southwest Detroit residents had planned to protest Wednesday at the event that had been scheduled for 11:30 a.m.

Tlaib said it appears to her that state officials weren’t even aware of the Marathon fire when they announced plans to present the award on Tuesday.

The award should not be given, she added, because the company has also been cited by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality for pollution violations.

“How is someone nominated? What are the criteria?” she asked.

Miller said the event was planned prior to the fire to mark Marathon's 7,106,984 continuous hours worked with no days away because of injury from February 7, 2006, through July 31, 2012.

“In the Marathon incident, there were no employee injuries and their evacuation system worked,” she said.